This Beautiful Place - Mt Si

I was so thankful to get out of the house the other day and hike 8 miles at Mt Si! This hike came highly recommended and I will definitely return to the well maintained and surprisingly shady trail. I got to share the hike with my duuuude and if that wasn't great enough, the weather was wonderful, affording us an incredible payoff for sure, 360 degree view and clear! I saw all the way past Seattle to Bainbridge Island, mini mountains with sprawling valleys and of course like, oh hey Rainier! Yeah, I'll get to you buddy. 

I certainly felt the hike by the time we were done (aaaand the next few days) and was glad to continue having an amazing afternoon at one of our favorite chow down spots - Marination! Knowing that this was probably the last good day of sitting out here in the sun, with this view, I just sat back and enjoyed every bite.

One thing I've learned to keep an eye out for on the trails up here are slugs! I came across these two lovers on the trail and while it's obvious they are snail sexing, I was certainly intrigued by exactly what was really going on here. I managed not only to answer my own questions, but I also learned quite a few other things about slugs. As it turns out snails/slugs have incredibly interesting and also somewhat mysterious sex lives, for example some species practice 'sadomasochism'. For all the details I found this article enlightening for anyone interested. 

This Beautiful Place: Deception Falls Pt 2

Here is the second photo dump from the Deception Falls hike! I allllmost didn't cross this bridge! It was very difficult to take pictures on it so I mostly shot blindly while death gripping the railing up to my elbow. Both the falls and the hike were incredibly beautiful. One thing I loved and couldn't get over were the skunk cabbages!! Skunk cabbage, lysichiton americanus, is known for having the largest leaves - two feet wide and four feet tall! Cresting a incline to see a miniature valley of these abnormally large, vivid green plants just feel magically prehistoric!

 

Cute ferns!

All rolled up!

 

Skunk cabbage plus foot for reference 

 

Some beautiful coloring and forest patterns!

Looking at the path ahead

I made a blurry gif! River from the bridge!

This Beautiful Place: Deception Falls Pt 1

I recently had the pleasure of attending a camping birthday up North a bit, in the Stephens Pass area. It was short and sweet but I still managed to take an excessive amount of photos so I've broken the photo dump into two posts. This first one has some photos from around the campground and of the hike we took along a gushing river, which brought us to a really cool log bridge (see bridge in my next post!).

Campground bubbles glittering in the sun

Have you ever seen Fern Gully?

The lone sunlit tree, must be special!

Verbena and friend

Neat little root cave

The view downstream...

The view upstream

Campground poi art

What I Wore: Climbing Trees

Hey I'm in a tree! This is a combo out and about adventure slash what I wore. We visited Saint Edwards State Park which is huge! And very beautiful. The park has tons of activities and encompasses a decommissioned seminary and grounds. Additionally there are miles of trails including waterfront paths and vistas of Lake Washington. It was quite lovely!I thrifted this sweater coat a few weeks back for about 12$ and I really love it! It's a great light layer for Spring and Fall or rainy mornings. I like that from far away the pattern isn't too crazy but the closer you get the more detail you see, almost a geometric pattern.

These earrings are poppers!!! Eee! Or at least, that's the name they go by. The best thing about working at Pike Place Market is the exposure to unique and one of a kind art. I really do have a passion for the market in that I've always had a passion and appreciation of unique, locally made, hand crafted, one of a kind goods. This is my first piece of jewelry by Vickie Clark and definitely not my last! I coveted these earrings for MONTHS! Just waiting for my color to come along and right at the perfect time - voila!

I have to share the story of this shirt. I love this band, El Ten Eleven, and they were going to be in Seattle on my birthday, touring with Bonobo! Sadly, the show sold out so fast I couldn't get tickets but on the day of the concert, just by random chance I met the merch manager for Bonobo while at work. She was super awesome and ended up putting me on the list plus one so not only did I get to see El Ten Eleven, I also got to share it with a friend. I got right up front and danced away for El Ten Eleven, it was such a great show!! And I also met Tim for about two minutes, squee!

So I love this belt. I have had this belt for about 13 years, which means I've had it for more than half of my life. Which is kinda crazy. The best crazy part about it - IT'S FUZZY!!!! 

Pencil Jump! I'm not exactly sure what face this is here but it was a great spinning shot so I kept it! Enjoy the sun! 

Wandering in the Paisley Forest

What a beautiful green forrest, what a great green adventure!!!

We had a few hours to enjoy an evening stroll through the woods! Evening now for me extends from after work about 6 or 6:30 to 8:30 when the sun is finally starting to set  - these few extra hours of light are so wonderful to have! My post yesterday covered the hiking details but I also wanted to share a few of this outfit since I unintentionally matched my surroundings quite well! And also...LOOK AT THOSE TINY LITTLE TAILS! Yea, still getting used to SHORT HAIR!!  : D

 

 

I bought this shirt a few weeks ago when some friends invited us out to the Neptune, a 90 year old Seattle theatre, to see Keller Williams who I had never seen live. It was a good show and a beautiful venue, with a cool mermaid bathroom! We're slowly checking off the local venues, but I can't wait to go back to the Neptune. 

These two shots totally encompass the feeling of this thrifted skirt, swirly, twirly, jumping, dancing fun! Paisley can be intense, chaotic and dare I say outdated?! But, still love it, even if it clashes with all the green. Like I said it's thrifted, so it is currently missing a top button but I couldn't wait to wear it so voila yellow belt! My favorite part of the outfit though are these Tree of Life earrings from Nature's Twist in Seattle! So beautiful and so sparkly! 

And I have to end this post with the glorious birthday backpack because I truly do love it. It was a such a wonderful, thoughtful and functional gift! I'm super pumped to break it in the summer, rub sum durrt on it!!